Hey everyone! I just got back from Paris and it was unbelievable! Friday night was a little hectic because it was Bastille Day so the city was swarming with people. Unfortunately for me, I had to meet Kit and Derek at the Eiffel Tower because I couldn't get on their train. I realized this would be impossible after my first taxi driver dropped me off in the middle of the road 2 miles away from the Eiffel Tower. After 2 taxis, a lot of walking, a few tears, and continuous praying I made it to my hotel and they got there about 30 minutes later. I thought for a while that I was never going to make it and then once I got there I was worried they weren't going to make it (I'm glad I lit a candle in the Dom earlier that day). Luckily, we all got to our hotel safe and sound and VERY tired.

Saturday we went to the Louvre Museum first thing in the morning and it was AMAZING! It was so surreal to see all these paintings and sculptures from centuries ago. I just looked at each one and imagined the artist sitting there creating this masterpiece one brushstroke at a time. The Mona Lisa was incredible. The pictures that you see do not do her justice. I just stood there mesmerized in front of her. Of course we didn't see everything there because that would take about 3 days. Besides the art, the architecture of the Louvre is beautiful and the pyramid in front is way bigger than it looks in the pictures. After the Louvre we had a delicious french lunch at a sidewalk cafe where I had the best creme brulee I've ever had in my life. After lunch we went to Notre Dame (the stained glass was some of the prettiest I've ever seen and I definitely laughed at the gargoyles), and the Paris Opera House. We decided we wanted to have a picnic under the eiffel tower later, so we went to this market by our hotel and got some croissants, fruit, cheese, pastries, and of course, wine, and had our picnic. The pastries were sooooo good, I don't know how they do it. We drank both bottles of wine (I needed the courage if we were going to the top of the Eiffel Tower), but sadly we ran out of time and the elevators closed. We did go by the Moulin Rouge and took some pictures. That was definitely not what I expected. Although it was cool, I thought it would look a lot less modern. I was a little disappointed, but it was still neat to see.

This morning we went back to the Eiffel Tower so we could go to the top, and about 20 minutes before we got our tickets they said that we couldn't go to the top deck because it was overcrowded. Damn american tourists! So we went up to the 2nd, got some good pictures, mailed our postcards, and literally ran back to our hotel and to the train station so that we wouldn't miss our train. My suitcase was full of wine, which meant I had a really hard time carrying up the stairs (thanks Derek for taking over). Once we finally got to the station, we couldn't find track 2, which is the one we thought we were supposed to leave from...I thought the train system had let us down. After some quick reading we figured out it left from a different platform and made it about a minute before it left. Whew...

The whole Paris experience was so surreal. When I think about this weekend, I feel like it was a dream. It's so hard to believe that I was actually at all these places. It's crazy! Another thing that was really weird was I missed Germany. I missed hearing german when I was on the train or the street. I got so excited when I heard someone speaking german because even though I don't really understand what they are saying, its in a way familiar. I never imagined that after 2 weeks in a country I would start to get homesick for it.